Lap-robe holder



Patented Oct. 25, I898.

A. L. COX 8. B. F. RIDER.

LAP ROBE HOLDER. (Application filed June 10, 1896.

(No Model.)

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ANDREIV L. COX AND BENJAMIN F. RIDER, OF CROTHERSVILLE, INDIANA.

LAP-ROBE HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 612,826, dated October 25, 1898.

Application filed June 10, 1897- Serial No. 640,246. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ANDREW L. COX and BENJAMIN F. RIDER, citizens of the United States, residing at Crothersville, in the county of Jackson and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Lap-Robe Holder, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to clasps for articles of Wearing apparel, &c., and particularly adapted for use in'connection with lap-robes for holding them in the desired relation to the occupant of a vehicle. We areaware of the existence of numerous clasps designed for this and analogous purposes, but the disadvantages of those with which we are familiar reside in the fact that their sphere of usefulness is limited according to the size of the article to use in connection with fabrics of which the thickness is between two extremes; and the object of our invention is to provide a clasp of such a construction that any desired thickness of material, without restriction, may be engaged thereby. e attain this object by providing the frame of the clasp or buckle with a tongue-seat which is open at one side, and in connection therewith use a tongue of which one member is adapted to swing rearwardly through the open side of said tongue-seat, and hence may be introduced by an opposite movement, irrespective of the toggle action due to the intermediate jointing of the sides of the tongue-loop.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear in the following description, and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a View of a clasp or buckle constructed in accordance with our invention applied in the operative position to a strap or webbing to form a laprobe holder. Fig. 2 is a detail view in perspective of the clasp or buckle, showing the tongue member thereof deflected from its normal or engaging position and withdrawn from the tongue-seat, in the position which it may assume in order to introduce or release a robe or other article. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of the same, showing the parts of the clasp in their operative or engaging position, the edge of an article, such as a laprobe, being engaged thereby.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

The clasp or buckle 3 embodying our invention comprises, essentially, two members, of which one is a frame member or frameloop 4 and the other is a tongue member of sectional construction. The frame member is preferably of looped construction with its arms provided with terminal bearings, such as eyes 8, in which is mounted the transverse spindle portion or pintle 6 of the tongue member, while the closed end of the frame-loop is forwardly bowed to form a parallel-walled open-sided tongue-seat 11, of which the open side is faced rearwardly.

The tongue member of the clasp comprises a loop-section 5 and a spindle-section 6, the arms of the former being hingedly or flexibly connected with arms 7 on the spindle-section, whereby the connected arms 5 and 7 constitute toggle-levers jointed at their contiguous ends by means of interlocking eyes 9. The combined length of the arms constituting each toggle-lever is greater than the interval between the bearing 8 and the plane of the tongue-seat 11, whereby when the toggle-le ver arms are alined or approximately alined the closed end of the tongue-loop 5 is or may be located at a point outside of or beyond the plane of the tongue-seat. Also the spindle or pintle 6 is of a length greater than the width of the frame-loop 4, thus locating the arms '7, which form the pivotal arms of the toggle-levers, or those arms having a fixed fulcrum outside of the area within the frameloop; but the side arms of the tongue-loop 5 converge from their points of connectionwith the arms 7 toward the closed end of said loop, or, in other words, the tongue-loop is reduced toward its free end to allow it to project through the tongue-seat 11 out of contact with the opposite sides of said seat, or those sides which are perpendicular approximately to the plane of the frame-loop. The reduction of the tongue-loop provides for the extension of its free end through the seat-loop, with a considerable space between the tongueloop and the sides of the seat-loop to accom modate the thickness of the fabric engaged by the clasp. This obviously provides to a certain extent for the engagement by the engaged positions.

clasp embodying our invention of fabrics of any thickness, ranging between such fabric as linen and theheaviest lap-robe; but in addition to this feature of construction it should be noted that as the tongue-loop 5 is carried by the arms 7 of the spindle or pintle, said tongue-loop having a free swinging movement in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the frame-loop, and as the eyes 9 of the arms 7 turn inwardly to locate the rear ends of the tongue-loop arms between the perpendicular planes of the sides of the frame-loop the free end of the tongue-loop is adapted to swing entirely through the frame-loop 4, and thus be withdrawn through the open side of the seat-loop 11. When a fabric is engaged by the clasp in the ordinary way-namely, with an edge of the fabric, as shown at 10, interposed between the free end of the tongueloop 5 and the plane of the seat 11, while the parts are in the positions illustrated in Fig. 2, and then the straightening of the togglearms to cause the extremity of the tongueloop to advance to and through the seat-loopit will be seen that the backward strain upon the tongue-loop will when the toggle-arms slightly pass a position of alinement throw the joint loops or eyes 9 rearwardly until the arms 7 come in contact with the side arms of the frame-loop, thus locking the parts in their The disengagement of the article 10 may of course be accomplished by the subsequent forward swinging of the joint between the arms or members of the toggle-levers forming the sides of the tongueloop; but where such an operation is inconvenient (and it'will be noted that when the engaged article is under strain the resistance ofiered to said forward-swinging movement of the joint would be considerable) the free end of the loop 5 may be swung rearwardly through the open side of the seat 11, and thus disengaged from the fabric. Also the en gagement of the tongue-loop with the fabric may be accomplished in the same way. The advantage of this alternate operation of the clasp or buckle will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the fact that in the first place the convenience of engaging the clasp with the fabric is vastly increased, being adapted to be accomplished from either side of the plane of the frame-loop. Another and important advantage of the open-sided seat, however, resides in the fact that the surplus material upon opposite sides of that portion which is engaged by the tongue-loop is adapted to spread, and thus facilitate the engagement by the clasp of lap-robes of great thickness and which are not sul'liciently flexible to be forced readily by the tongue into a contracted seat which is closed at all sides. This feature of itself adapts the improved clasp to be used in connection with articles of various thicknesses with equal efficiency, and as the same feature of construction provides for the backward-swinging movement or retreat of the ton gue-loop through the rear open side of the tongue-seat it will be seen that the efficiency of the device embodying our invention is increased over similar devices heretofore devised and coming within our knowledge of the state of the art.

In the construction illustrated in Fig. 1 the clasp embodying our invention is duplicated with the members attached, respectively, to the extremities of a webbing or strap 2, and therewith constitutes a lap-robe holder 1, adapted, according to its size, to be extended around the neck of the occupant of a vehicle or around the body or to engage one ormore persons, as may be preferred.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having described our invention, what we claim is A clasp of the class described, having a frame-loop provided at one end with a tongueseat disposed approximately perpendicular to the plane of the frame-loop, and provided at the extremities of its arms with bearings, and

a tongue member having sides consisting of intermediately-jointed toggle-levers,of which the rear sections are connected by a spindle mounted in said bearings of the frame-loop, and of which the front sections converge forwardly to form a reduced loop for extension through said tongue-seat, the rear sections of the toggle-levers being limited in their swinging movement, in one direction, by contact with the sides of the frame-loop, and the front sections of said levers being arranged wholly within the frame-loop for swinging movement in either direction through the plane of the frame-loop, to occupy a position at its free end upon eitherside of the plane of the frameloop, substantially as specified.

In testimony that We claim the foregoing as our own we have hereto affixed our signatures in the presence of two witnesses.

ANDREW L. cox. BENJAMIN F. RIDER.

lVitnesses:

CHARLES WILLIAMS, E. G. T. HARRoD. 

